PARIS — It is soccer’s cruel and unusual punishment, a fate as embarrassing as it is emasculating. The own-goal – or o.g., as it is often recorded in the match report – is brutal enough during a regular match on a regular day. But in a crucible such as Saturday’s round of 16 match at the European Championships, it is, quite simply, mortifying.
It is impossible to know right now how sports history will ultimately remember Gareth McAuley, the veteran defender for Northern Ireland who turned the ball into his own net with 15 minutes remaining in his team’s 1-0 defeat to Wales at the Parc des Princes.